Bug Description

At bootup I end up in busybox and I see the following message on the top of the screen "Gave up waiting for root device"
Actually I think that my hard drive "falls asleep" just after leaving grub. When I'm in the busybox I need to unplug my hard drive (serial ata) and to plug it again so that I can hear that it's restarting. After doing that I type exit in the busybox and the boot process restarts normally.
Dmesg shows me that:

The COMRESET thing continues as far as I don't unplug and plug again my hard drive.

I'm not sure this bug concerns only Ubuntu because I tried recently other distributions with the same kernel and I get the same error (Debian and pmagic liveCD) So I think this bug is concerning the kernel 2.6.26 but I don't know how to report this bug upstream.
I also have to tell you that it's a SATA II hard drive (3gbps) on a (nforce 3) SATA I controller (1.5gbps). And it appears that the controller does not fully support the hard drive (or the SATA I retro-compatibility of the hard drive is malfunctioning I don't know) But with older kernel it did always work without any problem.

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in linux.
For future reference you might be interested to know that a lot of applications have bug reporting functionality built in to them. This can be accessed via the Report a Problem option in the Help menu for the application with which you are having an issue. You can learn more about this feature at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

Please include the following additional information, if you have not already done so (pay attention to lspci's additional options), as required by the Ubuntu Kernel Team:
1. Please include the output of the command "uname -a" in your next response. It should be one, long line of text which includes the exact kernel version you're running, as well as the CPU architecture.
2. Please run the command "dmesg > dmesg.log" after a fresh boot and attach the resulting file "dmesg.log" to this bug report.
3. Please run the command "sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log" and attach the resulting file "lspci-vvnn.log" to this bug report.

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

From the upstream bug report, it looks like a patch has been isolated and making it's way into the mainline kernel. I'm reassigning this to the kernel team to try to get this patch merged prior to Intrepid's final release. Thanks.

From my understanding, this was fixed by commit 2fd673ecf0378ddeeeb87b3605e50212e0c0ddc6 and is now in the latest Intrepid kernel. Can you retest this for me and let me know if it has resolved the problem?

I belive I am experiencing a similar bug on hardy 8.04.1:
Everytime i suspend and restart i get an error like this:
[timestamp] ata3: soft reset failed (device not ready)
[timestamp] ata3: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)

I did a fresh install of intrepid beta today with kernel 2.6.27-4 and everything was working fine.
But when I upgraded to kernel 2.6.27-7 I had again the bug described above though the fix was released and worked until now.
Here's the dmesg with kernel 2.6.27-7. I will test now if this happens with 2.6.27-6 that is still in the repo.

I can confirm the above posts. I tried both the stock kernel in Intrepid as well as the server version. Problem occurred prior to patch in 2.6.27-4 and then reverted and has occurred in all kernel releases since. Machine problem was seen on is using a 72 GB Raptor (10k rpm) drive. I fear this will cause issues with the coming Intrepid release as if the above is true, anyone with a SATA II drive on a SATA I controller is going to have a non-functional install out the box.

Can we get a status update on fixing? I can and will provide any additional details asked for - I think the above has pretty much summed it up though.

A new fix for reset handling has been committed in the latest Intrepid kernel, 2.6.26-10.20 as released into -proposed. If you are able to test that kernel to see if this is fixed for you that would be very helpful.

@Peter Klotz, @awi -- those must be different controllers from those quirked in the patches applied. Could we get the lspci -vv output and the dmidecode output for these systems attached to the bug please.

@perfran -- could you let me know if your system is now working with the 2.6.27-10.20 kernel, thanks.

@Peter Klotz -- your problems seem to be related to a different chipset than the original reporter here, and for which the fixes on this bug are targetted. So I guess we should not be supprised if you are not helped by the test kernel. Can you get the exact messages you see when the boot fails, I am wondering if your problem is more like that reported in bug #290153, so it would be useful to confirm which of these two your symptoms are close too.

@awi -- as yours was not fixed by these changes it would be good to get your particular card and that failure reported upstream in the main bugzilla entry at the top of this bug.

Same problem with linux mint, not with linux mint's live CD though, just when it's installed. The problem occurs with the Ubuntu Live CD except when I let the keyboard settings stay at US English, if I try to change it to swedish before boot the comreset failed-thing happens.

My drive uses firmware revision RR04 and I am currently in the process of trying to obtain an update from Asus. The manufacturer Hitachi LG Data Storage does not provide any firmware updates for its drives (http://www.hlds.co.jp/e_HLDS/faq.jsp).

You can try disabling AHCI in your BIOS. Maybe this fixes the problem. Change setting "Advanced"|"IDE Configuration"|"SATA Operation Mode" from "Enhanced" to "Compatible".
However if you have a parallel installation of Windows XP (made in AHCI mode) this will no longer boot.

You may also post to linux-ide to confirm the suspicion of a firmware issue.

If it is really a firmware issue then become an Asus Member (http://member.asus.com/) and file a request like I did. Maybe the more people complain about this issue the higher the chances that Asus reacts.

thanks Peter for your tip to disable AHCI on my laptop. (Thinkpad T61p running 2.6.24-23-rt Ubunutu-Studio)
Wakeup after supsend doesnt show COMRESET error anymore and and 30 sec pause before login window disappeared. Now even wlan is up again after suspend

Hi,
I have the same problem with kernel
Linux mausi 2.6.27-11-generic #1 SMP Thu Jan 15 11:03:58 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
In 95% when I tried to boot, I got the above mentioned COMRESET failed (errno:-16).
Then, I tried to boot with an old PCI Sata Card with Sil3112-Chipset and.... everything works fine.
After that, I tried the all_generic_ide parameter with the build-in controller (nforce4) and it works too!
So here's my conclusion about this problem:
The sata_nv-driver used by kernel 2.6.27-11 has definetly a problem with some hd-drives like mine.

I believe I have this issue with my Ubuntu 8.10 install. I dont remember exactly when I first experienced it, but it was probably sometimes late 2008. It seems that its somewhat random whether it will occur or not during boot. Attaching the files mentioned above in the hope that it will help you sort out this issue.

I am also experiencing this bug on Ubuntu Hardy running on SATA disks. Below is an output of the errors (seem to be intermittent - didn't have them for some time and it's occurred twice today, resolved usually by rebooting - apps freeze and am unable to shut down normally):

I thought I should report, this has been started to work for me a
while ago. I'm using proposed updates, and I'm guessing that it's been
working with maybe with kernel 2.6.27-13, but at least with 2.6.27-14
and 2.6.27-17.

Noticed that this had gone quiet but it's the error I now get. I had this problem with 2.6.28-13-generic on 9.04. My symptom was this: I would get the COMRESET message that everyone else gets, then the filesystem(ext3) would be automatically remounted as read-only. Eventually it wouldn't mount, citing "bad superblock". It worked under a previous kernel(the last RT) but switching back to that kernel didn't help either.

Since I didn't have any more time to throw at this, I did the quick-fix:

edit /boot/grub/menu.lst

find the "kernel" line of the in-use kernel.

add " noapic nosmp" to the end of the line.

Save, restart, pray.

Hope this helps someone. Not sure if smp and apic really boost the speed of a system in the way that anyone would notice, though.

yup, yup I was on the same problem ! but i found a different way to fix ... until now it works :) i just run the install disk of my (ubuntu) actually is gadalinex because is on spanish >,< (i'm from mexico) well ... i use the install disk, then i used the option for run for the primary disk...so it works !! ok ok before it happens i choose an option that said something to check for mistakes or something like that ...
i wonder what really happend ...for me the error was the same above ..errno#16 etc >.< if somebody can explain me something i really apreciate it .. i don't know how to include the attachment of the error (were to find it) or what should i know to discribe the whole error ...
for me (i'm trying to fix the boot with "edit /boot/grub/menu.lst") the descriptions above doesn't work >.< so thanks anywere

I get similar errors on a NVidia 750i Motherboard with Pentium D Extreme Edition..
XFX, from whom I got this motherboard have deprecated the kernel and no longer support
the Pentium D Extreme Edition, I have a copy of the kernel flash image if you want
to have a look, and maybe compare it to the new BIOS flash.

I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 32-bit with the additional set of Ubuntu Studio packages,
was trying to run the realtime kernel (most recent), and with almost all my USB devices
disconnected, only PS/2 Keyboard and a USB Mouse. I tried a number of things,
without a clue what would work:

Running CPU in normal 3.73 Ghz mode with 800Mhz DRAM. I have overclockable ram,
BTW.. 4.256 Ghz, with 800Mhz RAM.. 4.256 with 1000Mhz ram. In every case I got errors.
I tried changing the PCI bus latency 32, then 128, then back to 64.. I tried turning
hyper-threading off. I haven't tried turning AHCI off.

I have AMD Athlon x2 5000+ with nforce 430 chipset.
I use an eSata PCI controller - Silicon Image SiI 3114.
Two drives are connected to the controller, but only one has issue. Problem drive is WD 2TB My book. Not using RAID or SoftRAID. I do not boot from this drive.

Drive mounts ok if it is not plugged in during boot. The drive also goes away after sleep/resume with same error.

MOBO is HP/Asus M2N61-AR. Bios is latest and can see drive no problem. Win 7 also has no issue. Dual booting with Win7 64 bit and Kubuntu 64 bit kernel 2.6.31-15

I'm having the same issue on Gentoo 2.6.30-r8 with the following hardware: Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 8 port SATA2 software raid controller, 8x 1.5TB Seagate 1,5 TB SAT2 31500341AS. Most of the times it happens on sata port 2 but i believe it also happend on another port. Like earlier mentioned it can happen five times a day, but sometimes it takes 2 weeks to start this error messages (link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0), SRST failed (errno=16), limiting sata link speed to 1.5gbps, reset failed, giving up).

I'm having this bug on 10.10 (2.6.35-28-generic). I get ata 4 SRST failed (errno=-16) etc...
Was working find until I download KDE to have along with Ubuntu but I was not able to boot either one from grub menu. I get the same message. I tried live cd but not able to boot from it, I don't even see my 2 dvd drives from F11 to chose boot. It has been 2 days that I tried to read pages and pages on the web without any real answer. newbie in linux word, please help!